Aside from the obvious mismatch interpretation – women prefer a larger height difference than men do – there is the possible interpretation that women prefer tall men, whereas men are fairly flexible about how tall a woman is, so long as she is shorter. For example, most women, regardless of their own height, could prefer a man who is at least six feet tall. Coupling that with the average height of women (approximately 5’4), you arrive at the researchers’ conclusion, but it could simply be that a woman, no matter how short, wants a tall man.

Men, on the other hand, seem to like tall women if they themselves are also tall, but shorter men still prefer women who are shorter than they are. Men might be giving an ideal height difference, whereas women were responding with an idea height.